Roddick Gives Nod To Davis Cup Here

Once Andy Roddick assured Jim McIngvale he would be all for playing the Davis Cup semifinals against Belarus on Westside Tennis Club’s clay, McIngvale began his all-out pursuit of landing the tie, scheduled for Sept. 24-26.

“If Andy wants it,” McIngvale said, “then I want it. And I think we have a good shot at getting it because Andy wants it. People say, `Why? — it’s so much work for not that much profit” — but you know me. I love the Davis Cup atmosphere.”

McIngvale’s partisan support of Roddick and Andre Agassi during the Masters Cup last fall got him crossways with foreign stars such as Roger Federer, but the Davis Cup demands lots of cheering for the “home” team. Westside’s first venture with Cup competition on grass two years ago was a success. The United States whipped Spain, and the weekend sold out.

Why clay this time? Because the Belorussians, particularly the country’s best player, Max Mirnyi, isn”t crazy about the stuff. His game favors a hard, fast court. He has won just a single match in five tries at Roland Garros, whereas he reached the fourth round at Wimbledon last year.

Should the United States win, it will play France or Spain for the championship the first week of December. The Americans are rooting hard for the French, of course, because they”d have the home court. For certain they don’t want to play on Spanish clay.

The finals are just a couple of weeks after the Masters Cup, but McIngvale would be in the thick of the bidding for that tie as well. He”d pitch his “lucky” grass court and tell the Davis Cup honchos how balmy Houston’s Decembers are.

Fort Worth, which hosted the 1992 final against Switzerland, will be bidding for the semis, too. It’s prepared to build an indoor clay court at the Will Rogers Coliseum if necessary.